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When the subscription model was first announced for the Adobe Creative Cloud in 2011, many photographers were concerned about the implications of “renting” software. Adobe, recognizing that most photographers don’t need the entire suite of applications they offer, responded with a special version this summer that includes Photoshop CC and Lightroom–the two tools most important to a photographer’s digital workflow, and widely considered the standard for post-production.

David Guenther (www.davidguentherphotography.com), a respected wedding and portrait photographer based in Lethbridge, Alberta, uses Lightroom and Photoshop CC extensively– they are, as he puts it, his “jam”. Guenther does his photo processing in Lightroom before sending them over to Photoshop CC for final tuning and output. In his opinion, the subscription model of $9.99 per month is a great value. “I’d rather pay a low monthly cost than buy the software outright at a huge price, and then have to upgrade every time a new version comes out,” he explains.

While the cost efficiency is a plus, the subscription-only model has been a big change for photographers who were used to a one-time purchase and basic access from their personal computers. Three years after Adobe Creative Cloud’s first release, we still hear common misconceptions about its features and functionality. With the release of the Creative Cloud Photography plan, it’s time to clear the air.

The Myth: The Creative Cloud Photography plan is more expensive in the long run.

The Truth: When compared to the traditional model of purchasing and upgrading, the Creative Cloud Photography subscription saves hundreds of dollars and spreads out the costs over time. When you add in the mobile applications that can handle powerful photography editing (photo editing in Lightroom mobile, for example) and other services like Lightroom web for sharing and receiving feedback, the value of Creative Cloud becomes very clear. And, as an added bonus, photographers of all levels will find value in Adobe’s extensive video tutorials that are available with the plan.

The Myth: All of your images will be stored in the Cloud.

The Truth: It’s not necessary to store your images in the Cloud (nor will you lose them if you have a lapse in your subscription), and all of your files can easily be stored locally. The Cloud is a just a very cool bonus–for many photographers, like Guenther, access to mobile apps like Lightroom mobile and Photoshop Mix let him edit and organize his photos while away from the computer. He says, “I use the Adobe Creative Cloud quite a bit. It’s important for me to have access to images and shoots I’m working on, because I’m often collaborating on a project and need to discuss work when I’m away from my computer. In that way, it’s been a huge help. I always have access to my work. All that, combined with Smart Previews in Lightroom, means I can work pretty much anywhere at any time. That’s essential for me.”

The Myth: All Creative Cloud applications are Cloud-based.

The Truth: One of the biggest misconceptions about Creative Cloud subscriptions is that you need to be connected to the Internet in order to use the applications. All of the desktop applications live on your computer. There is no requirement to have a full-time Internet connection­–Creative Cloud checks once a month to validate the subscription, taking only a few seconds. And with the mobile applications, this means you can work anywhere: remote locations, at the client’s office, or wherever you travel to.

Guenther says, “For me, Creative Cloud Photography has allowed me to be more mobile and work while I travel or while I’m away from the office. The Adobe tools I use operate just the same, but I have more flexibility.”

You can read more about the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan at www.creative.adobe.com/plans/photography. And, as always, you can download a free 30-day trial of Lightroom or Photoshop CC–desktop or mobile–to try it out for yourself.

Adobe announced a series of updates to its Creative Cloud suite of software products in an effort to better unite the desktop and mobile experience into a unified whole.

Among the changes is a new profile setting that lets Creative Cloud users upload brushes, styles, fonts, photos, textures and more so that they have access to them on any device. Touch screen support for Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface devices has been also been expanded as has support for 3D printing in Photoshop. Adobe’s Premiere video editor has been updated for GPU-optimized playback and editing of 4K video files.

For those in search of extra vectors, brushes, icons and other design elements, Adobe is introducing a Creative Cloud market which will house all of the above in a freely accessible library for both desktop and mobile users.

Adobe was also busy renaming and updating its mobile apps. Among the highlights:

Photoshop Mix is now available on the iPhone.

Lightroom Mobile has been updated to allow online commenting as well as syncing iPhone GPS data with the desktop Lightroom.

Adobe Ideas has been renamed Illustrator Draw.

Premiere Clip is now available for iOS devices to perform light video edits on the go.

A new Adobe Brush app lets you photograph a design and turn it into a Photoshop brush style.

A new Shapes app will convert any photo into a vector drawing.

Adobe Kuler has been renamed Adobe Color and lets you photograph a color and add it to your themes (which are tied to your Creative Cloud profile).

Finally, a major update to Adobe’s Behance online portfolio service will add a Talent Search feature so prospective employers can comb through the Behance network in search of qualified editors and artists. There will be a public job board and a recommendation engine that will help surface user profiles for those searching the site for creative talent to hire.

The Behance Talent Search is live now and Adobe’s Creative Cloud update will roll out to users by the end of the day today.

Adobe has reported that a cyber-attack by a third party has compromised the security of user information including the encrypted credit/debit card data, Adobe ID’s and passwords of 2.9 million customers. At the time the alert was issued, Adobe did not believe that decrypted credit card or debit card numbers were accessed. The company says in a security alert (posted in full below) that it has reset the affected passwords and is sending emails to customers whose data has been accessed (and to only those customers) with instructions on how to change their passwords. If you haven’t received an email and want to reset your Adobe password, instructions can be found here. Adobe also recommends changing the password of other accounts with the same user ID and password. Although Adobe has not specifically mentioned Creative Cloud in its security alert, that appears to be the target of these attacks; it’s possible that non-subscriber information has been accessed as well.

Additionally, Adobe is sending letters to those customers whose credit or debit card information “was believed to be involved,” with information about next steps to help prevent potential misuse of the information. Processing banks for Adobe payments have been notified. Further, Adobe is offering a complimentary, one year credit monitoring membership (“where available”) for those whose credit card and debit card information was breached.

And, finally, Adobe is working with federal law enforcement to investigate the attack.

At the same time, Adobe says that source code for Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion, ColdFusion Builder and other Adobe products has also been accessed by a third party. The company is currently not aware of any increased risk to customers; you can read more about this security alert here. A security update for Acrobat XI and Acrobat Reader is expected on Tuesday, October 8.

Important Customer Security Announcement

Cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today. Given the profile and widespread use of many of our products, Adobe has attracted increasing attention from cyber attackers. Very recently, Adobe’s security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of customer information as well as source code for numerous Adobe products. We believe these attacks may be related.

Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. At this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems. We deeply regret that this incident occurred. We’re working diligently internally, as well as with external partners and law enforcement, to address the incident. We’re taking the following steps:

As a precaution, we are resetting relevant customer passwords to help prevent unauthorized access to Adobe ID accounts. If your user ID and password were involved, you will receive an email notification from us with information on how to change your password. We also recommend that you change your passwords on any website where you may have used the same user ID and password.

We are in the process of notifying customers whose credit or debit card information we believe to be involved in the incident. If your information was involved, you will receive a notification letter from us with additional information on steps you can take to help protect yourself against potential misuse of personal information about you. Adobe is also offering customers, whose credit or debit card information was involved, the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available.

We have notified the banks processing customer payments for Adobe, so that they can work with the payment card companies and card-issuing banks to help protect customers’ accounts.

We have contacted federal law enforcement and are assisting in their investigation.

We are also investigating the illegal access to source code of numerous Adobe products. Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident. For more information, please see the blog post here.

We value the trust of our customers. We will work aggressively to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future. Again, we deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you. If you would like additional information, please refer to Adobe’s Customer Support page.

Given the backlash from the photography community over Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription-only pricing model for Photoshop and its Creative Suite products, we weren’t too surprised when Adobe announced its new Photography Program. Adobe is now pricing subscriptions to Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5 at $9.99 a month for owners of commercial versions of Photoshop or Photoshop Extended CS3 or later who sign up no later than December 31, 2013. Suites and volume licenses do not qualify. According to Adobe, this is not an introductory price; it is the “standard price” for this level of membership–until or unless you cancel your membership. If you decide to cancel, you will not be able to re-join at the same price.

If you already have a Creative Cloud Single App membership for Photoshop at the $9.99/month price, your membership will automatically be transitioned to the new pricing model so you will continue to pay the same amount going forward and receive the same benefits as those just signing up, including Lightroom 5. Other CC members who meet the qualifications and want to take advantage of the $9.99/month rate should contact Adobe Customer Service about transitioning their membership to the new pricing structure.

The Photography Program requires an annual commitment with monthly payments and includes Adobe Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5 (soon to be updated to v. 5.2), Bridge, a Behance membership with a ProSite, 20GB of free storage, and access to all updates and Creative Cloud Learn’s training resources.

Back in March, a rumor made the rounds that Adobe would move away from selling packaged software, making Creative Suite programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator only available as cloud-based subscription software. The rumors claimed May 1 as the date this this change would happen. While not giving much specific information, Adobe at that time did confirm that it would stop selling physical packaged software and that all software would be available via download or online subscription. As often happens with rumors, May 1 came and went with no announcement from Adobe.

However, today during its keynote at the Adobe Max Creativity Conference, Adobe announced sweeping changes to the Creative Suite programs. All Creative Suite programs will now be re-branded as Creative Cloud. Adobe will stop selling perpetual licenses and move completely to a subscription-based pricing system for all former CS apps. Creative Cloud (CC) is currently priced at $50 per month for individuals who purchase an annual subscription. Existing Adobe customers who own CS3 through CS5.5 get the first year of Creative Cloud at a promotional price $30 per month; educational pricing is also $30 per month. CS6 users can sign up for CC for $20 a month for the first year. More importantly for many photographers, single app pricing is $10 a month for the first year. Lightroom is the only CS app that will exist both as part of the CC and as a perpetual license. According to Adobe, this is due to Lightroom’s status as both a consumer and professional product. Adobe also announced significant upgrades to the new CC apps that will launch in June.

What does this mean for professional photographers? For most of us, it will be a big change. CS6 will continue to be available as a perpetual license and will be supported through the next significant upgrade to the Mac and Windows operating systems. However, there will be no further development for that version. Going forward, if you want to use Photoshop, you will have to have a Creative Cloud subscription of some sort.

While some level of internet connectivity is likely required, these are not (despite the name) cloud-based apps that require a constant connection. These are software programs that you download and install to your computer. You can work offline as you would with any version of Photoshop you have used in the past. The big difference now is that if you don’t pay your subscription fee, the software will stop functioning.

More information about the changes coming to Photoshop specifically can be found on Adobe’s website:

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